Community Reviews
Who knew reading the dictionary could be so much fun? Blount makes up his own dictionary of his favorite (and not-so-favorite) words and phrases. He brings the same wit and humor that we all know and love from his turns on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."
It's loaded with his brand of political humor too. Here's the entry for the term "first sentence":
"Generally an author takes great pains with the first sentence of his or her book. I know I have never been quite satisfied with any of mine. But then I've never had all the ranks of assistance available to Karl Rove, author of Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Rove acknowledges an editor; a 'close friend and trusted former colleague' who 'also helped craft every chapter and episode'; a line editor; a researcher; seven research assistants under the 'expert guidance' of yet another person, his chief of staff; twenty-two people who read important parts of the manuscript; and ten more people who 'devoured and improved major swatches of this manuscript.'
"An interesting process, devouring and improving, maybe something like free-range chickens turning bugs and scraps into high-quality manure. But never mind that. Here is the opening sentence produced by Rove and his team:
"'On September 11, 2001, I was the first person to tell President George W. Bush that a plane had slammed into an office tower in New York City and was aboard Air Force One as it crisscrossed the country in the hours that followed.'
"The second sentence is nothing to write home about either. But at least it doesn't place an office-tower-hitting plane aboard Air Force One. The president really would have been slow on the uptake if his trusted aide had informed him that such a plane was crisscrossing the country aboard the president's own plane. I hear people saying, 'Oh, you know what he meant.' I'm sorry, but that don't get it in Sentence Writing 101. Much less First-Sentence Writing 101. I have to call him out here. Hey, Karl Rove, you're a writer? Ain't you got no pride? (See humble.) When you think of the people who have sweated blood to write good English sentences, you can feel all right to write a sorry-ass first sentence like that?"
Ah, that was worth the price of the book right there! Hilarious.
It's loaded with his brand of political humor too. Here's the entry for the term "first sentence":
"Generally an author takes great pains with the first sentence of his or her book. I know I have never been quite satisfied with any of mine. But then I've never had all the ranks of assistance available to Karl Rove, author of Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. Rove acknowledges an editor; a 'close friend and trusted former colleague' who 'also helped craft every chapter and episode'; a line editor; a researcher; seven research assistants under the 'expert guidance' of yet another person, his chief of staff; twenty-two people who read important parts of the manuscript; and ten more people who 'devoured and improved major swatches of this manuscript.'
"An interesting process, devouring and improving, maybe something like free-range chickens turning bugs and scraps into high-quality manure. But never mind that. Here is the opening sentence produced by Rove and his team:
"'On September 11, 2001, I was the first person to tell President George W. Bush that a plane had slammed into an office tower in New York City and was aboard Air Force One as it crisscrossed the country in the hours that followed.'
"The second sentence is nothing to write home about either. But at least it doesn't place an office-tower-hitting plane aboard Air Force One. The president really would have been slow on the uptake if his trusted aide had informed him that such a plane was crisscrossing the country aboard the president's own plane. I hear people saying, 'Oh, you know what he meant.' I'm sorry, but that don't get it in Sentence Writing 101. Much less First-Sentence Writing 101. I have to call him out here. Hey, Karl Rove, you're a writer? Ain't you got no pride? (See humble.) When you think of the people who have sweated blood to write good English sentences, you can feel all right to write a sorry-ass first sentence like that?"
Ah, that was worth the price of the book right there! Hilarious.
